Low Latency Networking Device Using Header Prediction

ABSTRACT

A network device receives a packet that includes a plurality of header fields. The packet is parsed to sequentially obtain the plurality of header fields. One or more header fields not yet available at the network device are predicted based on one or more header fields that are available at the network device. A network processing decision is generated for the packet based on the predicted one or more header fields and the one or more header fields that are available at the network device.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is as continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional applicationSer. No. 13/767,180, filed Feb. 14, 2013, still pending, which claimspriority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/702,312, filed Sep. 18,2012, entitled “Scalable Low Latency Multi-Protocol Networking Device”,the contents of which are each incorporated in their entirety herein byreference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to reducing latency in anetworking device.

BACKGROUND

Packet header arrival delay and processing time contribute significantlatency when making forwarding decisions in high speed network devices,such as switches. Network processing decisions use as input some subsetof the bits of a packet header. Because the bits of a packet header donot arrive at the same time, traditional switch design methods delaynetwork processing decisions until all the required bits arrive.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example network device in which thepredictive processing techniques presented herein may be performed.

FIG. 2 is a high level block diagram of the components in the networkdevice configured to perform the predictive processing techniques.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a predictive processing unit capable of alow latency fast path network processing decision according to oneexample.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are diagrams illustrating examples of a cache used inthe predictive processing unit for predicting a set of header fields notyet received from received header fields.

FIG. 5 is a timing diagram illustrating the latency improvement that canbe achieved using the predictive processing unit shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a multistage cascadedconfiguration of the predictive process unit.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a multistage parallelconfiguration of the predictive process unit.

DESCRIPTION OF EXAMPLE EMBODIMENTS Overview

A network device receives a packet that includes a plurality of headerfields. The packet is parsed to sequentially obtain the plurality ofheader fields. One or more header fields not yet available at thenetwork device are predicted based on one or more header fields that areavailable at the network device. A network processing decision isgenerated for the packet based on the predicted one or more headerfields and the one or more header fields that are available at thenetwork device.

Example Embodiments

Presented herein are predictive packet header techniques and amultistage networking decision pipeline to reduce the processing time ofpackets in low latency network devices e.g., switches. Predictive packetheader processing can use hysteresis, network aware software, or othermethods to provide narrow and accurate packet header prediction.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example network device 10 configured toperform the predictive packet header techniques and a multistagenetworking decision pipeline techniques. The network device 10 includesa plurality of ports 12(1)-12(N) configured to receive packets from anetwork and to send packets to the network, a switch fabric 14 forswitching packets among ports 12(1)-12(N), a memory 16 and a centralprocessing unit (CPU) 17. The switch fabric 14 includes one or morebuffer(s) 20, switching table(s) 30 and a packet decision unit 40, i.e.,a predictive processing switching information base (SIB). The CPU 17performs higher level control of the operations of the network device10. The buffer(s) 20 temporarily stores packets within the networkdevice 10, as packets are being processed.

The predictive processing SIB 40 makes decisions including, but notlimited to security, quality of service (QoS), statistics, ingress andegress access control policies, classification, marking, adding ordeletion of packet fields, load balancing, multi-tenancy handling, Layer2 bridging (switching) and Layer 3 routing, and dropping of packets. Theswitch fabric 14 may be implemented in digital logic gates in one ormore application specific integrated circuits (ASICs).

Memory 16 may comprise read only memory (ROM), random access memory(RAM), magnetic disk storage media devices, optical storage mediadevices, flash memory devices, electrical, optical, or otherphysical/tangible memory storage devices. The CPU 17 is, for example, amicroprocessor or microcontroller. Thus, in general, the memory 16 maycomprise one or more tangible (non-transitory) computer readable storagemedia (e.g., a memory device) encoded with software comprising computerexecutable instructions and when the software is executed (by the CPU17) it is operable to perform the techniques described herein. Forexample, the operations of the predictive processing SIB 40 may bepartially or completely performed in software stored in memory 16 and isexecuted by the CPU 17.

The network device 10 can be any network device now known or hereinafterdeveloped, including a switch, router, gateway, a software stack on ahost device, a virtual network interface card (VNIC), virtual switches,and a physical network interface card (including those that supportvirtualization).

Turning now to FIG. 2, a high level block diagram is shown for thepredictive processing SIB 40 according to one example. The predictiveprocessing SIB 40 includes a parser 50, a predictive processing unit 60and a processing decision unit 70. The parser 50 comprises digital logicconfigured to parse fields of a received packet as the bits of thepacket are received at a port of the network device. For example, theparser 50 is configured to parse each of a plurality of header fields(also simply referred to herein as “headers”) of a packet and to supplythe headers to the predictive processing unit 60 as they are received. Apacket sent over a network typically has a plurality of sets of headersincluding a set of Layer 2 (L2) header fields, a set of Layer 3 (L3)header fields and a set of Layer 4 (L4) header fields, as shown in FIG.2. The data for these sets of header fields are parsed sequentially asthey are received at a port of the network device. Thus, a first set ofheader fields, e.g., the L2 headers, is available, followed by a secondset of header fields (e.g., the L3 headers), followed by a third set ofheader fields (e.g., the L4 headers). There may be a parser 50 for eachport of the network device, but for simplicity only a single parser isshown in FIG. 2.

The predictive processing unit 60 receives the plurality of sets ofheaders (header fields) and generates a network processing decisionresult for each of the sets of headers. For example, the predictiveprocessing unit 60 generates for a packet a L2 network processingdecision result, a L3 network processing decision result and a L4network processing decision result. The network processing decisionresults for a packet are supplied to the processing decision unit 70,and the processing decision unit 70 makes a network processing decisionfor the packet based on one or more of the network processing decisionresults. In some cases, the processing decision unit 70 can make aprocessing decision for a packet based solely on the L2 networkprocessing decision result, or based on the L2 and L3 network processingdecision results, or based on the L2, L3 and L4 network processingdecision results. The operations of the processing decision unit 70 maybe integrated into the predictive processing unit 60, as willappreciated by the example configurations shown in FIGS. 3, 6 and 7,described hereinafter.

Each of the L2, L3 and L4 headers comprises a plurality of fields. Forexample, for an Ethernet frame/packet, the fields of the L2 headersinclude a source media access control (MAC) address field, a destinationMAC address field, an EtherType protocol identifier field and anoptional IEEE 802.1Q tag field. Examples of fields of the L3 headersinclude Internet Protocol (IP) source address and IP destination addressfields. Examples of fields of the L4 headers include a TransmissionControl Protocol (TCP) or Universal Datagram Protocol (UDP) source portfield, TCP or UDP destination port field, sequence number field andacknowledgment number field.

The techniques presented herein are applicable to perform prediction foran arbitrarily deep number of header fields, and beyond L4 headers, forexample, such as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) header fields. While thefigures and description herein refer to L2, L3, and L4 headers, this ismeant by way of example only. It is to be appreciated that thesetechniques are generally applicable to predicting one or more headerfields not yet available at the network device based on one or moreheader fields that are available at the network device. A networkprocessing decision is generated for the packet based on the predictedone or more header fields and the one or more header fields that areavailable at the network device.

Turning now to FIG. 3, a block diagram is shown for one form of thepredictive processing unit 60 for a simple case involving a first set ofheader fields, e.g., L2 headers and a second set of header fields, e.g.,L3 headers. The L2 headers are represented at reference numeral 80 andthe L3 headers are represented at reference numeral 82. As explainedabove, the L2 headers will be available and ready (by the parser 50shown in FIG. 2) for processing a period of time before the L3 headersare available for processing.

The predictive processing unit 60 includes a L2 network processing unit90, a L3 header prediction unit 100 and a L3 processing block 110. TheL3 processing block 110 includes a L3 predictive network processing unit112, a L3 network processing unit 114, a prediction resolution logicunit 116 and a comparator 118. The L2 headers are supplied as input toboth the L2 network processing unit 90 and the L3 header prediction unit100. The L2 network processing unit 90 is configured to generate a L2network processing decision result (L2 result) based on the L2 headers80. The L2 result is supplied as input to the L3 predictive networkprocessing unit 112 and to the L3 network processing unit 114.

The L3 header prediction unit 100 is configured to predict the L3headers based on the L2 headers, before the L3 headers 82 have beenparsed and are available for processing at the network device. Thus, theL3 header prediction unit 100 will output a prediction of the L3 headers(predicted second set of header fields) for a packet based on thereceived L2 headers (received first set of header fields) of thatpacket.

The L3 predictive network processing unit 112 is configured to generatea predicted L3 network processing decision based on the L2 result andthe predicted L3 headers. The L3 network processing unit 114 generatesan actual L3 network processing decision based on the L2 result and theL3 headers, after all the L3 headers are parsed and available forprocessing at the network device. Consequently, the L3 predictivenetwork processing unit 112 will output a predictive L3 networkprocessing decision before the L3 network processing unit 114 willoutput an actual L3 network processing decision. Moreover, the L3network processing unit 114 cannot even begin to operate until itreceives all the L3 headers.

The comparator 118 compares the predicted L3 headers generated by the L3header prediction unit 100 with the received L3 headers 82 once all theL3 headers are available for processing. If the comparator 118 finds amatch between the predicted L3 headers and the received L3 headers, itgenerates an output supplied to the prediction resolution logic unit116.

The prediction resolution logic unit 116 resolves which networkprocessing decision should be used, the predicted decision output by theL3 predictive network processing unit 112 or the actual decision fromthe L3 network processing unit 114. If the prediction is correct, thatis, if the L3 predicted headers match the received L3 headers 82, thenthe prediction resolution logic 116 will, based on the output from thecomparator 118, select the L3 predicted network processing decision foruse as the L3 network processing decision result (L3 result). Otherwise,the prediction resolution logic 116 will wait for the actual L3 networkprocessing decision output by the L3 network processing unit 114 basedon the received L3 headers for use as the L3 result.

Other factors like reordering and packet priority are an important pieceof the prediction resolution logic. In some cases the prediction resultmay be discarded to prevent packet reordering or to prevent preemptionby lower priority packets. For these situations, the network device maywait for completion of the generation of network processing decisionbased on the received packet headers regardless of the comparison resultbetween the predicted packet headers and the received packet headers.

Conversely, there are also certain situations in which the predictionresult can always be used. An example is a static video streamingnetwork in which the probability of incorrectly predicting headers islow and the loss of a low number of packets is negligible. For thesesituations, the network device will always select the predicted networkprocessing decisions for packets of a packet flow type known to have alow probability of incorrectly predicting header fields, e.g.,predicting the second set of header fields based on the first set ofheader fields.

Header prediction logic used by the L3 header prediction unit 100 can beimplemented in several ways. With reference now to FIG. 4A, one examplemethod for L3 header prediction is to cache the headers of recentpackets. FIG. 4A shows an example cache 120 containing a table of L2headers and L3 headers of packets received by the network device overtime. In this example, the “key” to the cache is the L2 headers and thestored/cached value is its L3 headers. When a new packet arrives, its L2headers information is looked up in the cache to obtain a prediction forthe L3 headers in significantly less time than it takes for the L3headers to be fully parsed and made available for processing.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4A, a packet is received with L2headers=(Source MAC1, Destination MAG3, EtherTypeX). The L2 headers areused as a key 122 to the cache 120 to search the cache 120 using thoseL2 headers in order to locate a match and to retrieve the correspondingL3 headers. The result retrieved 124 from the cache using the key 122 is(IP Source Address3, IP Destination Address4, . . . ).

FIG. 4B shows another example cache 120′ for which a key 126 consists ofL2 headers and L3 headers and the result 128 consists of L4 headers. Theexample in FIG. 4B shows a key 126 consisting of L2 headers (SourceMAC2, Destination MAC4, EtherTypeX) and L3 headers (IP Source Address2,IP Destination Address3, . . . ) and a corresponding result consistingof L4 headers (TCP Source Port 1, TCP Destination Port 5, . . . . ).While FIG. 4B shows the key consisting of L2 and L3 headers forretrieving L4 headers, this is not meant to be limiting as in somecases, the key may be L2 headers alone.

Thus, FIGS. 4A and 4B shows that data may be stored in a cache for afirst set of header fields and corresponding data for a second set ofheader fields (and optionally a third set of header fields) for packetsreceived over time at the network device. The prediction then involvesusing the received first set of header fields (and second set of headerfields) of a packet to look up and retrieve from the cache data for thecorresponding second set of header fields (or corresponding third set ofheader fields), if there is an entry in the cache matching the first set(and second set) of header fields.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are examples of a temporal cache. Again, in FIG. 4A, L3header prediction is involves caching the headers of recent packets. Thekey to the cache would be the packet's L2 headers and the value storedis its L3 headers. When a new packet arrives, its L2 information islooked up in the cache to obtain/retrieve a prediction for the L3headers in significantly less time than it takes for the L3 headers tobe fully parsed. Once the new packet's L3 headers are fully parsed theL3 headers are pushed into the cache if an entry does not already exist.

Other methods for packet header prediction may use buffer history, flowrecords, network aware software or even statistical calculations to makeaccurate packet header prediction.

A buffer history can be used for performing packet header prediction bytracking the occurrence of packets with specific headers. For example,when a new packet arrives, its L2 headers are used as a key to a bufferhistory cache that returns the L3 headers for packets with matching L2headers that had the highest number of occurrences in the buffer historycache. Once the new packet's L3 headers are fully parsed, the L3 headersare pushed into the buffer history cache, increasing the occurrencenumber for the matching header record.

Packet flows are bursty packets which are likely to arrive in identicaltrains, often reproducing the same flow many times. It is useful torecord the previous packet's headers to be used as a key to lookup andpredict the headers for the current packet. For example, when packetsarrive their headers are stored as a key to a flow history cache inwhich the result data is the next packet's headers. In the future, whenthe same packet arrives, its headers are used to lookup the predictionfor the next packet's headers.

The prediction examples above use a cache populated in hardware byhardware. The prediction cache can also be populated by network awaresoftware. Many protocols transfer information about the hosts andheaders of packets that traverse a network device. This information canbe used to populate a prediction cache and is especially useful in morestatic network configurations where the cache hit frequency andprediction accuracy become very high.

Turning now to FIG. 5, a diagram is shown that illustrates the timingsavings that may be achieved using the predictive header processingtechniques described above in connection with FIG. 3. This figure showsthat the packet latency without using the predictive techniques toobtain L3 network processing results is at time t=B=time for L3 PacketHeaders Ready plus time for L3 Network Processing. The packet latencywith use of the predictive techniques is t=A=max(L3 Headers Prediction,L2 Network Processing) plus L3 Predictive Network Processing. L3Predictive network processing requires both the L3 predicted headers andthe L2 network processing results. The max( ) function is use to accountfor which takes longer, prediction of the L3 headers or L2 networkprocessing. The latency savings is B−A=L3 Headers Ready+L3 NetworkProcessing−(max(L3 Headers Prediction, L2 Network Processing)+L3Predictive Network Processing). In the normal case, L3 PredictiveNetwork processing will have the same latency as normal L3 networkprocessing, and may even use the same hardware. In that case, thelatency savings using predictive network processing is L3 HeadersReady−max(L3 Headers Prediction, L2 Network Processing).

Thus, to summarize, FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a low latency fastpath processing decision configuration in which, based on a receivedfirst set of header fields made available at a network device, apredicted second set of header fields is generated before a receivedsecond set of header fields is made available at the network device. Anetwork processing decision is generated based on the first set ofheader fields and the predicted second set of header fields before thereceived second set of header fields is made available at the networkdevice.

The network processing decision may be generated by: generating a firstnetwork processing decision result based on the first set of headerfields; generating a predicted second network processing decision basedon the first network processing decision and the predicted second set ofheader fields; after the received second set of header fields is madeavailable at the network device by the parsing, generating an actualsecond network processing decision based on the first network processingdecision result and the received second set of header fields; andselecting for use as a second network processing decision result eitherthe predicted second network processing decision or the actual secondnetwork processing decision.

Reference is now made to FIGS. 6 and 7 for a generalization/extension ofthe techniques depicted in FIGS. 3-5 to multistage prediction. A networkforwarding pipeline makes processing decisions on many different packettypes of headers. To minimize the latency of the pipeline it isnecessary to make packet header predictions for each of the differenttypes of packet headers.

One method to provide multiple predictions, shown in FIG. 6, is tocascade the packet header logic so that the earliest packet headersprediction result is provided as a seed to the next packet headersprediction. This method provides higher accuracy of prediction for thelater packet headers. FIG. 6 shows the same arrangement shown in FIG. 3,but with the addition of L4 headers shown at 84, L4 header predictionunit 130 and L4 processing block 140. L4 header prediction unit 140receives as input the L2 headers 80 and the L3 predicted headers outputby the L3 header prediction unit 100. The L4 processing unit 140comprises L4 predictive network processing unit 142, L4 networkprocessing unit 144, prediction resolution logic 146 and comparator 148.

The L4 processing block 140 operates in a similar manner as the L3processing block 110. The inputs to the L4 predictive network processingunit 142 are the L3 result from L3 processing block 110 and the L4predicted headers from L4 header prediction unit 130. The L4 predictivenetwork processing unit generates a predicted L4 network processingdecision that is supplied to the prediction resolution logic unit 146.The L4 network processing unit 144 operates on the L4 headers 84, oncethey are available, and the L3 headers. The L4 network processing unit144 generates an actual L4 network processing decision supplied to theprediction resolution logic unit 146. The comparator 148 compares the L4predicted headers with the received L4 headers. If there is a match,then an output is supplied to the prediction resolution logic unit 146to select the predicted L4 network processing decision for use as the L4result. Otherwise, the prediction resolution logic unit 146 waits forthe actual L4 network processing decision output by the L4 networkprocessing unit 144, and selects it for use as the L4 result.

Thus, in summary, FIG. 6 illustrates a process by which a third set ofheader fields is predicted based on a received first set of headerfields and a predicted second set of header fields. A predicted thirdnetwork processing decision is generated based on the predicted thirdset of header fields and a second network processing decision result.After a received third set of header fields is made available at thenetwork device (by the parsing of the packet), an actual third networkprocessing decision is generated based on the received second set ofheader fields and the received third set of header fields. Either thepredicted third network processing decision or the actual third networkprocessing decision is selected for use as a third network processingdecision result.

An even lower latency method is to perform all of the packet headerpredictions in parallel, though at a cost of a less granular prediction.This parallelized method may still be useful in certain static networkenvironments. Using packet header prediction, a multistage networkingpipeline can be created in which a small number of network processingdecisions are started in parallel before all the required packet headershave arrived or are otherwise made available. Each network processingdecision may have one or more unique packet header predictions as aninput seed. Once all of the necessary headers have arrived the correctnetwork processing decision can be selected in almost zero time.

A configuration in which all packet header predictions are performed inparallel is shown in FIG. 7. The L3 block 110 in FIG. 7 is the same asin FIG. 6. However, in FIG. 7 unlike FIG. 6, L4 header prediction by theL4 header prediction unit 130 is based only on the L2 headers 80. Inaddition, the L4 processing block 140 does not use the L3 result.Instead, the L4 predictive network processing unit 142 uses only the L4predicted headers as input. Thus, the L4 result output by L4 processingblock 140 is derived solely from either the L4 predicted headers or thereceived L4 headers.

To summarize the parallel configuration of FIG. 7, a third set of headerfields is predicted based on the first set of header fields, and thusbefore even the second set of header fields is available at the networkdevice. A predicted third network processing decision is generated basedon the predicted third set of header fields without waiting for thesecond network processing decision result. After a received third set ofheader fields is made available at the network device (by parsing of thepacket), an actual third network processing decision is generated basedon the received second set of header fields and the received third setof header fields. Either the predicted third network processing decisionor the actual third network processing decision is selected for use as athird network processing decision result.

In summary, the techniques presented are generally applicable topredicting one or more header fields (e.g., L3, L4, DPI fields, etc.)not yet available at the network device based on any one or more headerfields that are available at the network device. A network processingdecision is generated for the packet based on the predicted one or moreheader fields and the one or more header fields that are available atthe network device. The prediction may involve predicting using areceived first set of header fields (e.g., L2 headers) to predict asecond set of header fields (e.g., L3 headers), using a received firstset of header fields (e.g., L2 headers) to predict a second and thirdset of header fields (e.g., L3 and L4 headers), using a received firstset of header fields (e.g., L2 headers) and optional a second and/orthird set of header fields to predict a fourth set of header fields(e.g., DPI headers), and so on. To generalize, header prediction mayinvolve predicting one or more of: Layer 3 headers, Layer 4 headers, andDeep Packet Inspection headers, based on one or more of: received Layer2 headers, received Layer 3 headers, predicted Layer 3 headers, receivedLayer 4 headers, and predicted Layer 4 headers.

The above description is intended by way of example only.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: at a network device,receiving a packet that includes a plurality of sets of header fields;parsing the packet to sequentially obtain the plurality of sets ofheader fields; predicting, based on a received first set of headerfields made available at the network device, a predicted second set ofheader fields before a received second set of header fields is madeavailable at the network device; and generating a network processingdecision for the packet based on the first set of header fields and thepredicted second set of header fields before the received second set ofheader fields is made available at the network device available at thenetwork device.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein generating the networkprocessing decision comprises: selecting for use as a second networkprocessing decision result either a predicted second network processingdecision that is based on the first set of header fields or an actualsecond network processing decision that is based on the networkprocessing decision and the received second set of header fields.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, further comprising comparing the predicted second setof header fields with the received second set of header fields.
 4. Themethod of claim 3, wherein selecting comprises selecting the predictedsecond network processing decision when it is determined based on thecomparing that the predicted second set of header fields match thereceived second set of header fields, and otherwise waiting forcompletion of the generating of the actual second network processingdecision.
 5. The method of claim 3, wherein selecting comprisesselecting the actual second network processing decision and waiting forcompletion of the generating of the second network processing decisionregardless of results of the comparing.
 6. The method of claim 3,wherein selecting comprises always selecting the predicted secondnetwork processing decision for packets of a packet flow known type tohave a low probability of incorrectly predicting the second set ofheader fields.
 7. The method of claim 2, further comprising: predictinga third set of header fields based on the first set header of fields andthe predicted second set of header fields; generating a predicted thirdnetwork processing decision based on the predicted third set of headerfields and the second network processing decision result; after areceived third set of header fields is made available at the networkdevice by the parsing, generating an actual third network processingdecision based on the received second set of header fields and thereceived third set of header fields; and selecting for use as a thirdnetwork processing decision result either the predicted third networkprocessing decision or the actual third network processing decision. 8.The method of claim 2, further comprising: predicting a third set ofheader fields based on the first set of header fields; generating apredicted third network processing decision based on the predicted thirdset of header fields; after a received third set of header fields ismade available at the network device by the parsing, generating anactual third network processing decision based on the received secondset of header fields and the received third set of header fields; andselecting for use as a third network processing decision result eitherthe predicted third network processing decision or the actual thirdnetwork processing decision.
 9. The method of claim 1, whereinpredicting comprises predicting one or more of: Layer 3 headers, Layer 4headers, and Deep Packet Inspection headers, based on one or more of:received Layer 2 headers, received Layer 3 headers, predicted Layer 3headers, received Layer 4 headers, and predicted Layer 4 headers. 10.The method of claim 1, further comprising storing in a cache data for afirst set of header fields and corresponding data for a second set ofheader fields for packets received over time at the network device; andwherein predicting comprises using the received first set of headerfields of a packet to look up and retrieve from the cache data for thecorresponding second set of header fields.
 11. An apparatus comprising:at least one port configured to receive packets from a network and tooutput packets to the network, each of the packets including a pluralityof sets of header fields; a parser configured to parse the packet tosequentially obtain the plurality of sets of header fields; a packetdecision unit coupled to the parser, and configured to: predict, basedon a received first set of header fields made available at the networkdevice, a predicted second set of header fields before a received secondset of header fields is made available at the network device; andgenerate a network processing decision for the packet based on the firstset of header fields and the predicted second set of header fieldsbefore the received second set of header fields is made available at thenetwork device available at the network device.
 12. The apparatus ofclaim 11, wherein the packet decision unit is further configured to:select for use as a second network processing decision result either apredicted second network processing decision that is based on the firstset of header fields or an actual second network processing decisionthat is based on the network processing decision and the received secondset of header fields.
 13. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the packetdecision unit is further configured to generate the network processingdecision by: predicting a third set of header fields based on the firstset header of fields and the predicted second set of header fields;generating a predicted third network processing decision based on thepredicted third set of header fields and the second network processingdecision result; after a received third set of header fields is madeavailable at the network device by the parsing, generating an actualthird network processing decision based on the received second set ofheader fields and the received third set of header fields; and selectingfor use as a third network processing decision result either thepredicted third network processing decision or the actual third networkprocessing decision.
 14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the packetdecision unit is configured to predict one or more of: Layer 3 headers,Layer 4 headers, and Deep Packet Inspection headers, based on one ormore of: received Layer 2 headers, received Layer 3 headers, predictedLayer 3 headers, received Layer 4 headers, and predicted Layer 4headers.
 15. A non-transitory computer readable tangible storage mediaencoded with instructions that, when executed by the processor, causethe processor to: receive a packet that includes a plurality of sets ofheader fields; parse the packet to sequentially obtain the plurality ofsets of header fields; predict, based on a received first set of headerfields made available at the network device, a predicted second set ofheader fields before a received second set of header fields is madeavailable at the network device; and generate a network processingdecision for the packet based on the first set of header fields and thepredicted second set of header fields before the received second set ofheader fields is made available at the network device available at thenetwork device.
 16. The computer readable tangible storage media ofclaim 15, further comprising instructions that, when executed by theprocessor, cause the processor to: select for use as a second networkprocessing decision result either a predicted second network processingdecision that is based on the first set of header fields or an actualsecond network processing decision that is based on the networkprocessing decision and the received second set of header fields. 17.The computer readable tangible storage media of claim 16, furthercomprising instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause theprocessor to: predict a third set of header fields based on the firstset header of fields and the predicted second set of header fields;generate a predicted third network processing decision based on thepredicted third set of header fields and the second network processingdecision result; after a received third set of header fields is madeavailable at the network device by the parsing, generate an actual thirdnetwork processing decision based on the received second set of headerfields and the received third set of header fields; and select for useas a third network processing decision result either the predicted thirdnetwork processing decision or the actual third network processingdecision
 18. The computer readable tangible storage media of claim 15,wherein the instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause theprocessor to predict comprise instructions that cause the processor to:store in a cache header fields of packets received over time; andpredict one or more header fields by using as a key to the cache one ormore received header fields to retrieve corresponding one or more otherheader fields not yet made available for a packet received by thenetwork device.
 19. The computer readable tangible storage media ofclaim 15, wherein the instructions that, when executed by the processor,cause the processor to predict comprise instructions that cause theprocessor to: store in a cache header fields of packets received overtime; and predict one or more header fields by using as a key to thecache one or more received header fields to retrieve one or more otherheader fields for packets that had the highest number of occurrences inthe cache.
 20. The computer readable tangible storage media of claim 15,wherein the instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause theprocessor to predict comprise instructions that cause the processor topredict one or more of: Layer 3 headers, Layer 4 headers, and DeepPacket Inspection headers, based on one or more of: received Layer 2headers, received Layer 3 headers, predicted Layer 3 headers, receivedLayer 4 headers, and predicted Layer 4 headers.